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Rita Cofield is an associate project specialist working on the Los Angeles African American Historic Places (LAAAHP) at the Getty Conservation Institute.

Deqah first met Rita virtually on a National Trust panel on preservation podcasting, and Vanessa was connected to Rita by LA Principal City Planner Ken Bernstein (our special guest at the Biddy Mason Listen & Learn, which you should check out if you haven’t yet!). We got to know Rita in-person at the Historic African American Neighborhood and District Summit in Atlanta, HAANDS. We recorded this conversation there, and will be publishing more with HAANDS attendees in the coming weeks. So stay tuned :)

In this conversation, Rita shares her exciting work on the LAAAHP, which expands on work that was started with the SurveyLA project, a previous partnership between the Getty Conservation Institute and the Los Angeles City Planning’s Office of Historic Resources between 2010 and 2017 to survey and inventory parcels in the city and surface places historically significant to communities of color.

Rita also volunteers as Executive Director of the Friends at Mafundi, an advocacy organization that seeks to protect and preserve the historic Watts Happening Cultural Center (also known as the Mafundi Building) in Watts, California, a project close to Rita’s heart. She mentions a great mentor who she worked with on the project: Roger E. Mosley, actor, director, coach, and beloved mentor to creatives, academics, and athletes. The Watts community also recently lost Oscar Neal, a Watts activist, advocate, historian, business owner and former owner of the historic Jordan’s Café in Watts.

Credits:

Thank you to Rita Cofield. This episode was edited by Vanessa Quirk and mixed by Connor Lynch. Our music is by Adaam James Levin-Areddy. Your hosts are Deqah Hussein-Wetzel and Vanessa Quirk.